This time, a cordial crowd for Dan Webster

Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Webster found a much more hospitable crowd Tuesday night at his first town hall meeting since the one disrupted by liberal activists three weeks ago.

About 150 people attended the meeting at Windermere Town Hall, a conservative corner of Florida's 8th Congressional District. A few young activists from such progressive groups as Organize Now showed up, but they were mostly cordial, and the lion's share of the crowd was senior citizens.

It was a far different scene than the House freshman found at a town hall meeting in Orlando last month, when he was shouted down by activists who accused him of waging war on the middle class.

Webster and town officials seemed prepared to maintain control this time. Attendees with protest signs were asked not to bring them inside. And at least seven Windermere police officers were present, including Chief Mike McCoy.

"I'm a good listener. You don't need to shout for me to hear you," Webster said as the meeting began. "You can shout — it's just going to be outside, not in here."

Webster used charts showing growing federal spending levels to explain his support for a budget plan put forward by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

"This is a picture of a tidal wave of debt," he said. "If we don't deal with it, eventually we'll be a bankrupt country."

Webster did face pointed questions, particularly about changes to Medicare for those currently under age 55. The Ryan plan would replace the traditional safety net with a system that would partially subsidize the purchase of private insurance by seniors.

He was also repeatedly asked why he supports only spending cuts to shrink the deficit, rather than corporate tax increases.

"Why are we giving money to oil companies when we're broke?" one man asked.

But the lawmaker was unmoved.

"Getting our debt under control is a spending problem," he said. "It's not a tax problem, it's a spending problem."